I don’t want to jinx it but for the past few weeks… suddenly he was surprisingly obedient. I’m not sure if it’s just a phase for me to feel very very lucky or… could this be… I don’t dare to say it… the end of the Terrible Two/Three? Well the truth is most mothers I have spoken to said there’s no such thing as an end. Our own children are challenging no matter how old they are. There’s the 2-year-old rebel period, the 4 year rebel period, the 6… tween… teen rage… Never ending. They are rebels in their own ways no matter what age they are at.

But I am so thankful. I mean he still want things his ways sometimes but he could be soooo much more reasonable, and even a tantrum does happen, it’s muuuuch easier and quicker to end one.

Sometimes he is so good boy that the danna and I were in shock. The danna will ask, “Junya, why you so good boy today??” Haha.

Whenever I feel that a flare-up is imminent (he’ll typically sulk and say things like “I don’t want to eat anymore. I don’t want anything.”), I will simply tell him, “I know you are upset now. When you feel better you tell mama ok.” And then just walk away and do my stuff.

Initially I did that simply because I didn’t have time for his nonsense (broccoli can’t get burnt!! I can’t leave Sakura in the bath tub!!), and also because I don’t want to start yelling so I’d better walk away when I’m still calm… but it miraculously work..😱

So when I tell him “please let me know when you feel better”, he would usually reply with “no, I don’t want to feel better” at first (🙄), but he will always call out to me after a while:

“Mama. I feel better.”

And then I’ll immediately come back to him, and talk lightly to him about what went wrong just now.

Sometimes when there’s a long silent, I would get curious and ask, “Junya, are you feeling better already?” and he’d say, “no I’m not better yet. You wait for me to tell you ok.”

Wah wah wah. Ok lo. Hahhaha.

Please please please please let this last.

Confession

Maybe it’s a boy thing, but he has never kepoh about anything that happened in school. Because most girls I know like to gossip since 2 year old!!!!! (“Emily didn’t finish her rice today.” “Jayden push Brayden and Brayden cry.” etc etc) Even when I ask about his day, he never say much, to the point I was worried that he didn’t enjoy school (thankfully that’s not the case).

But one day, when I tucked him to bed, he suddenly told me, rather sleepily, “today I hit (classmate’s name) with lego.”

My heart skipped a beat, and immediately all the school drama scenes flashed in my mind and I was seeing myself bowing to the student’s mother apologizing in tears with my evil bully son standing behind refusing to budge, in the principal’s room.

I pretended super casual and asked him, “oh really, can you tell me what happened?” He couldn’t really explain it and just told me that he hit the classmate’s hand with lego, and that teacher told him to say sorry to the friend.

I felt a little uneasy and worried, but at the same time I was also very touched that he shared this incident with me. It was the first time. After he fell asleep, I texted the teacher and asked what happened, so apparently the classmate pushed him while he was playing his lego, he got upset and hit the classmate’s hand with a lego, in the end they both apologized to each other.

The next day, I took the opportunity to talk to him again about it after knowing the details.

“So (classmate) pushed you and you felt upset?”
“Yea and then I put fire on (classmate) and then (classmate) die.”

What?!?

And then he laughed. I also laughed. Seriously where did he learn all these from??

“Okay you can only do this in your head ok. Cannot do it for real.” I told him.
“Hmm? Do it to my head??” he asked.

Pistachio

So there was the pistachio incident that almost gave me a heart attack.

So after dinner, I was snacking on pistachio and Junya wanted to share, so I gave him one (deshelled). And then Sakura cried so I went into the bedroom and gave her oppai.

And then Junya cried for mama. I went out to check on him, apparently he has stuck the freaking pistachio up his left nostril. I could see a huge bump on his nose like a filler job gone very wrong. And it was so deep inside that I had no confidence to have it taken out.

I panicked and I called the danna (really really really thank god he was in the same country that day 😭😭😭), and then we sent him to KKH.

It was 9pm at night and the average waiting time was 4 hours. Singaporeans! How do you guys do this???

To cut long story short, he had to lie down on the operating table, velcro wrapped like a mummy, and had the pistachio vacuumed and tweezed out. To me who was standing next to him, it was like watching a Mel Gibson torture movie. And the whole time he just closed his eyes and didn’t make a sound at all.

The doctor was so surprised, he said that he takes stuff out from children’s nose on a daily basis and Junya was the first child that did not cry.

Even I couldn’t be as brave as him. The danna and I gave him lots of candies after, and told him these are strictly for the mouth only.

Breaking out of cocoon

He is definitely not a social butterfly. But recently I could see him slowly wiggling out his very tight cocoon.

He started to play (for real!) with other kids, and also started to become very friendly to everyone – older kids, adults, taxi drivers… random strangers…

To Sister

More importantly, he and his sister communicate, for real. He gives her a pretend bus and tells her, “you take this, you cannot take the small bus ok?” Then Sakura will nod happily. Then sometimes when I’m washing the dishes I see him feeding his sister the stuff he’s eating “take this, you can eat one bite. One bite ok?” and then Sakura will open her mouth big big (she doesn’t even do that for me!😡)

I just feel like… it finally pays off. The effort of keeping them close together despite all the initial jealousy… He no longer see her as a pet (put stuff over her head like she’s a doll) nor an enemy (Only Junya! Sakuwa cannot!). Although he still sees her as a rival in some way, but that’s okay.

He’s also acting super big brother in regards of his not yet verbally-skilled little sister, whenever she fusses- “Mama!! Sakuwa wants that cup!! Not this bottle!!” “Mama!!! Sakuwa tired! She wants oppai.”😅

Wah wah wah now he knows her better than the one whose womb stored her for 9 months isit!!!

This is my least favorite topic. Honestly. I think a child’s appetite can make or ruin a parent’s life.

So her food strike is over and she is eating again, but.

I don’t really know anymore. She eats whatever she likes when she likes it. Basically. She eats a little better when she can feed herself. A sharp dessert fork from Daiso does the trick. But you still can’t poke a spoon of rice into her mouth.

There are days we survive on chawan mushi and nori (seaweeed).

Speaking of nori, that’s her favorite thing in the world. She has never refused a nori before, but a sheet of nori is probably like, I dunno, 2kcal?! It can’t make a meal!!

When you show her seaweed she goes like this:

When you show her rice…

That’s the story of my life now.

And I got so frustrated I tried to use nori to bargain with her. I told her she has to eat a spoon of rice before she could get a (tiny) piece of nori. She understands it is a negotiation. Usually she would give me the above face at first, then when I insist, she will very angrily gobble it down as if to protest..😳

Mood

She has like mini PMS nowadays.

One moment she’s all sunshine happy.

All smiles.

Then suddenly nothing pleases her…

Please don’t continue this 小姐脾气ok, I very scared you 嫁不出去 next time.

Nu.

When she is moody, everything is nu. She will just sit down glumly on the floor refusing to budge.

“Come here, Sakura.” “Nu.” “It’s ok. We take a snack?” “Nu.” “I hug you?” “Nu.” “What can I do for you?” “Nu.”

Yosh yosh

When she is playful, she will kacao me. Usually by hitting me in the face -____-.

Really. She just loves being around him. Whenever she sees oniichan when we go pick him up after school, she would be so delighted she squeals. But she doesn’t do the same when she sees me -_-.

Until doesn’t want to leave her oniichan…

Haha依依不舍。

Not all sweetheart

However she can also fight her oniichan now!! She’s not just all sweetheart.

She can’t use her words very well yet, but she can use her voice. When her brother doesn’t allow her to do stuff, or doesn’t give in to what she wants, she will yell at him.

“Jeberjeberjeberjeber!!!!”

Well… I guess that’s where “gibberish” came from.

Also, now she likes to 借刀行凶, and usually her 刀 is my hand. Cannot press a button? Pull my hand to press for her. Don’t dare to touch something scary/hot? Pull my hand so I can hurt myself. Not allowed to push oniichan when she’s angry? Pull my hand to commit this vice. Smart.

For Mama

I was very very very busy this month because I was catching up all the work that piled up during our Japan trip.

But somehow I feel like I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I see freedom. I see a lighter me. I see relief. I see dreams.

Firstly, since the both of them are able to be in each other’s company quite happily now (which I know it won’t last long before I have to google articles on how to solve sibling quarrels), I feel more relaxed to not have to glue my eyes to Sakura’s every motion. Well, although I probably still have to hide all the pistachios in the house.

I also recently discovered that Sakura enjoys watching the TV now so that helps ALOOOOOOT.

When I need to fix a quick dinner I’ll just switch to the kids channel and I’ll have a good mess-free, scream-free, tears-free, trouble-free 20 minutes to put together that yakisoba.

Thanks, TV.

Secondly, I have decided to let Sakura go to school together with her oniichan. My initial plan was to wait till 18 months for toddler class but the freedom was too… tempting. Plus I also have lots of work trips starting this month!! *excuse excuse*

Just imagine… two kids, gone. Yet I don’t have to worry because I know that they are in good hands (thank you Singapore childcare!). From 8am-4pm… that’s NINE HOURS A DAY.

How much can I achieve in 9 hours??? I don’t even dare to dream about it… For someone who functions between intervals of 10-15 minutes among chaos, screamings and an eternal of mess, 9 freaking hours in a completely uninterrupted stretch???

My god, I think I can be super woman god.

That, or I may just be a complete sluggard. Being a sluggard is a luxury that I’ve just only come to understand post-cheesiepetit.

What do I want to do when I regain my child-less freedom? First thing first, a hard core massage.

That pistachio incident — scary! Btw, you can also go to Mt Alvernia Hospital’s 24-hr clinic. Rates are v reasonable (for a private hospital) and waiting time is definitely not as crazy. I reckon you’re already paying private rates at KKH since you’re not locals, so you might as well go straight to private hospitals and get faster service!

I literally teared when you told us how brave Junya was when the doctor took out the pistachio from his nostril, but that nose filler gone wrong was quite a funny incident. Imagine how cheeky could Junya be whenever you’re not around and the minute u’r gone to attend Sakura, he already thought like “Ooh, mama’s gone. Hmm why don’t I try to eat this with my nose?” Then he finally figured out that its not a brilliant thing to do.
Somehow I felt that Junya was actually born as a typical Japanese, and quite reserved as them (in a good way). Maybe he used to see his father and other Japanese to not being kepochi about others and only minding his own business. But that’s a good thing, no?

I hope you enjoyyyy the 9 hours a day child free time! Hoorayyy… No guilty, all mama loves when kids go to school including me hahahhaa… I wish you can always find balance in your own life 🙂 Especially after Sakura go to school, hope you can enjoy yourself, personal time, etc again! Happy mommy, happy children!